Volunteers Brittany Cardoza and Jacob Nuchols, both deputies with the Riverside County Probation Department , interview a homeless man living in a creek bed near Limonite Avenue and Clay Street during an annual homeless count in Jurupa Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018.
(File photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

For the second year in a row, Riverside County officials have recorded a jump in the number of people living on the streets of the sprawling Inland county even though Southern California’s economy is thriving.

Initial counts were taken on a chilly morning in January by hundreds of volunteers who scoured underpasses, river beds and myriad other places where homeless people gather. And after comparing notes and cross-checking numbers, officials released the survey results this week.

A group led by Susan Von Zabern, director of the county Department of Public Social Services, looks for homeless people living along a creek bed near Van Buren Boulevard in Jurupa Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018.(File photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Those results show that the unsheltered — or on-the-street — population grew from 1,638 in January 2017 to 1,685 this year, for an increase of 3 percent. In 2016, volunteers counted 1,351 people on the street.

However, when taking into account the number of people staying in shelters, the overall homeless population declined this year.

While advocates for the homeless say such point-in-time censuses inevitably undercount the population, the numbers reflect real — and troubling — trends.

Increases are being documented in other Southern California counties as well, said Jill Kowalski, manager of the homeless programs unit within the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services.

Undoubtedly the flip side of the healthy economy — the soaring cost of housing — has something to do with what’s happening in Riverside County, Kowalski said.

“People who are already vulnerable or looking for affordable housing are being priced out of the market,” she said.

Indeed, said Anne Unmacht, founder and president of Project TOUCH, a group that serves homeless individuals in Temecula and Murrieta, “Rents have skyrocketed.”

Kowalski said another factor may be the release of people from jail under a state policy called realignment. That policy diverts nonviolent felons away from state prisons and sends them to jails, squeezing the capacity of those county-run lockups and forcing some inmates out before their terms are up.

Kowalski said the surge may also reflect migration from coastal regions that are experiencing severe housing shortages and are closing homeless encampments.

Luisa Tassan, a volunteer from Riverside, left, and Jill Kowalski, with the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services’ Homeless Program Unit, fill out a survey after interviewing homeless people living in a flood control channel in Jurupa Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (File photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

Unmacht said drugs probably factor into the equation.

“I think we are seeing a lot of fallout from the opium crisis,” she said.

While the on-the-street population rose, the number of homeless individuals in shelters declined from 768 in 2017 to 625. And because of that, the total countywide homeless population declined from 2,406 to 2,310.

“So we’re still down overall,” Kowalski said.

She attributed the significant shelter decline to the closure in June 2017 of Roy’s Desert Resource Center, an emergency shelter in the Coachella Valley.

“People weren’t displaced,” she said. “Some went to other shelters. Many of them went to permanent housing.”

Despite the discouraging report about how many are living without a roof over their heads, Unmacht said there is reason to be hopeful that in the near future housing will be found for some of them.

Jacob Nuchols, a deputy for the Riverside County Probation Department, left, and Susan Von Zabern, Director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services, interview a homeless man living in a creek bed in Jurupa Valley on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (File photo by Stan Lim, The Press-Enterprise/SCNG)

“The good news is homelessness is being addressed regionally with more passion than there has been in a while,” Unmacht said.

For example, she said municipal officials and volunteers in southwest Riverside County are working hard to find services, permanent housing and employment for people. For the eighth year, her group provided an emergency winter shelter for homeless people in Temecula and Murrieta.

Dave is a general assignment reporter based in Riverside, writing about a wide variety of topics ranging from drones and El Nino to trains and wildfires. He has worked for five newspapers in four states: Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona and California. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from Colorado State University in 1981. Loves hiking, tennis, baseball, the beach, the Lakers and golden retrievers. He is from the Denver area.